


We were beautiful

by emsylcatac



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Getting Back Together, Hurt/Comfort, LadyNoir - Freeform, Mutual Pining, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Romance, but it's not really the focus of the fic, half reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:34:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25689673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emsylcatac/pseuds/emsylcatac
Summary: “It’s been a year since we broke up. Today. It’s beenexactlya year.”“I know,” he said, voice barely above a whisper.It was probably not the answer Ladybug was looking for, but Chat Noir felt so clumsy navigating through this discussion when he knew that he was the guilty one. Not knowing what she felt now.“It’s been hard,” her voice quivered. “It’s been…it’s beenveryhard.”“I know,” he repeated, lower than before.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 32
Kudos: 314





	We were beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> So I saw [this post](https://spidaerman.tumblr.com/post/624927113703718913/tag-your-results) on Tumblr about fics prompts according to your birthday & Alizeh (maketea) and I had fun writing a fic on our results.  
> Here's mine, I got "hurt/comfort & getting back together"! Hope you'll enjoy!
> 
> Thank you Lisa (Ladybuginettes) for beta-reading ♥

“It’s been a year.”

Chat Noir heard her voice before he could sense her presence. She sat next to him on the edge of the roof.

The tiny coffee shop down in the street in front of him was very interesting to look at. Waiters wove through the packed premises, sometimes stopping to joke with customers, exaggerating their actions, playing a role of sort accented by the white apron over the classy dark suits and bow ties they wore. The clientele varied between groups of friends, business partners, or people who sat alone, like that old man on the right reading his daily journal.

Chat Noir’s eyes followed one of the waiters as he interrupted a couple in the middle of what seemed to be a passionate discussion. He wondered what they must have been talking about, how long they had been together and whether they had plans for their future.

How in love with each other they were.

_In love..._

“A year since what?”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Ladybug turning her head towards him. Studying him.

A few seconds passed. “You really don’t want to talk about it, do you?”

“A lot of things happened a year ago,” he replied.

He knew that he was being stubborn. He knew precisely what she was referring to.

She sighed. “It’s been a year since we broke up. Today. It’s been _exactly_ a year.”

 _ **We** broke up._ She was nice; she could have said that _he_ broke up with her.

The waiter he was watching turned around and disappeared inside, leaving the couple on the terrace picking their conversation back up to where they had left it at. Chat Noir idly wondered what they had ordered.

What _he_ would have ordered if he had been the one sitting at this very table, with Ladybug facing him. What _she_ would have taken.

_Probably a hot chocolate with chantilly cream on top of it, and a strawberry ice-cream._

Like she used to when they were together.

Which they weren’t anymore.

“I know,” he said, voice barely above a whisper.

It was probably not the answer she was looking for, but he felt so clumsy navigating through this discussion when he knew that he was the guilty one. Not knowing what she felt now.

“It was a weird time,” she went on. “We discovered who Hawkmoth was, a few days later we were breaking up… And I think four months or so after that, we took him down. And then the interminable weeks of trial and...”

He kept silent, not daring to interrupt her and not knowing where she wanted to lead the talk.

“It’s been hard,” her voice quivered. “It’s been…it’s been _very_ hard.”

“I know,” he repeated, lower than before.

“You haven’t been the same since. _We_ haven’t been the same. I’m glad that we’re still friends, but…”

But…

It wasn’t the same as _before_. There was something missing. _They_ were missing something. Something a bit like—

“I miss you,” she whispered.

He bit his lip. “Yeah...me too,” he finally admitted, just as quietly.

Ladybug slowly intertwined the tips of her fingers with his, as if not daring to touch him completely and not knowing if she was overstepping a boundary or not. When he didn’t retract his hand, she squeezed the tips of his fingers shyly, a soft touch he barely felt but that still sent shivers in his arm up to his neck.

“I haven’t seen anyone after you.”

He bit back a relieved sigh. “Um. Me neither.”

He felt one of her fingers so very softly caressing his. He didn’t dare to reciprocate the gesture just yet.

The couple in the café was standing up now, ready to leave. He must have missed when the server came back with their drink and their bill later on, though he was sure that he had been keeping his gaze down there, still avoiding Ladybug’s. He must have lost focus at some point.

They continued to keep quiet, swinging their feet above the edge. Enjoying the sound of chatters down the café, the cooing of pigeons and the noises of a too loud motorbike passing in a street nearby. Or fearing each other and what they would say if they decided to break the silence.

Between the two of them, Chat Noir had always been the most vocal about his feelings and how to express them. Yet, it’s Ladybug who was determined to break down the wall this time.

“You never told me why. I thought...one day, we were fine, and then...I don’t…” she sighed. “I don’t know what happened. The more I try to think about it, the less I understand what went wrong. We were beautiful. We were…” she trailed off.

“It was getting dangerous. With us knowing who Hawkmoth was.”

She chuckled without humour. “Since when did you become the careful one between the two of us?”

He took a deep breath. “You wouldn’t have let me do it if I had told you why.”

He felt her eyeing him. “No, probably not. I’m stubborn like that.”

He smiled. Yes, he knew that very well. And he loved that about her.

The waiter was cleaning the now empty table.

“Why are you...why are you telling me and asking me about all of this? Not that I mind, but…it’s been a year. It’s plenty of time to move on, or…”

Chat Noir wondered if crying without being seen was an option or not. Sadly, it had never been, and even less so with her. He wanted just as much to know if she had moved on as much as he would rather keep having no idea about it.

Ladybug snorted next to him. “It took me a long time to fall in love with you, Chat Noir. A _ridiculously_ long time, all things considered. But once I was...” he finally dared to turn his head and look her back in the eyes, because she deserved that much—and was struck by the intensity of her gaze, empowered by the shining tears that she must be fighting so hard to hold back, just like he was. “Once I was, _there was no going back,_ ” she breathed the last few words.

It was rare for Ladybug to bare her feelings in such a raw and open way. He could feel his lips quivering, and knew it wouldn’t be long until he would lose control of his tears.

He realised that he had been squeezing her fingers hard when he felt hers grip his tightly, too.

“There was no going back,” she repeated. “You make it hard too—you have _that_ kind of power on me.”

He nodded numbly—to signify that he had understood her words, or that he knew the feeling because _she_ also had that power on him, he didn’t know.

“I see,” he said, and then turned his gaze up to the sky and brought his unoccupied hand to wipe the treacherous tears that he couldn’t suppress.

He exhaled a puff of air, shook his head and looked back down on the café. A new couple had taken the place of the previous one, much younger this time.

With how shy and awkward they were acting, Chat Noir guessed that they must have been on their first date. He wished them luck.

He wished that he was back on his first date with Ladybug, too.

Wished they could maybe, _just_ maybe, go on a new first date, one day.

Ladybug must have followed his gaze. “They look happy,” she commented.

“Yeah.”

She sniffed. “We were happy, too.”

He chuckled, but it sounded more like a sob to his ears. “Yeah.”

“Then why—”

“Because he was...he...he was…” Chat Noir squeezed his eyes shut. Took a deep breath, and another, and _another_ , and grit his teeth tighter, and another breath, and another _again_ , and suddenly let out a loud shattered whine.

He brought his hands to hide his face as sobs after sobs started to shake his body.

A gentle hand settled on his back and slowly caressed it up and down.

Even when she was the one to be hurting, even when he was the reason, Ladybug was always putting her feelings aside to help him if he was in need. It was unfair how wonderful she was.

“Breathe,” she said softly. “Slowly. Breathe with me.”

He did as he was told. Following the rhythm of her breath and the one of her soothing hands on his back.

Gently, her hand moved to his head. She let her fingers run through his hair, squeezing at times, at all the spots she knew he liked.

He knew she had picked that up from when they were together. He hadn’t felt her hand on his head moving this intimately in a year. It felt good.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed when he had calmed down. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

Chat Noir sighed. “No, it’s not. It’s not.” He took another breath, slower this time. “I broke up with you last year after I...after we figured out who Hawkmoth was,” he started, and he knew that there would be no going back to what he was about to say, “because he was...he was my father.”

He felt her hand pause in its ministration and heard her suck in a deep breath. But she didn’t interrupt him.

“There was... such a risk for him to figure me out… such a risk for him to use you against me… And we were _so close_ , I didn’t want to risk you getting closer and saying _something_ you shouldn’t because if he were to know who I was and spy on me or… I don’t know…”

He felt her arms wrap themselves around his waist and her head coming to rest on his shoulder. He put his hands above hers and rubbed circles on her fingers.

“I don’t know what you would have done in my place but… _that’s the toughest and worst decision I ever had to take._ ”

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that, Chaton,” she whispered in his ear. “I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been. And while I want to tell you it was _stupid_ , because it _was_ , I can’t even blame you. Because I know that I would have done the same.”

The waiter down the coffee shop had come to take the young couple’s order. By the looks of it, they were asking for the exact same thing.

Such a first date thing to do.

“I’m the one who’s sorry. I never wanted to believe you back in the days, when you said that superheroes couldn’t date.”

He felt Ladybug smile. “And yet _you_ were right. We _did_ date, after all.”

He chuckled, snuggling a bit deeper into her embrace. “That we did. And it was nice.”

She repositioned them so her hands were above his this time. “It was _wonderful_. _We_ were wonderful.”

Chat Noir hummed in agreement.

“Do you remember our first date?” Ladybug asked quietly.

He closed his eyes, letting the memories flow back to him. “Yeah,” he chuckled. “You kept getting ice-cream on your nose and I wiped it off each time.”

She laughed softly in his ears and he felt her body shaking along his. “I was so embarrassed. But you always made me feel like it was the most natural thing to happen.”

“It was cute.”

She hugged him tighter. “We were cute. You remember our first kiss?”

Chat Noir let a smile pull at his lips. “Hard to forget… I was so nervous that at first I kissed your nose instead,” she giggled, “and then my teeth kept chattering so I accidentally bit your lip.”

She was fully laughing now. “It was adorable! It was a great first kiss.”

He snorted. “Sure.”

“It _was,_ ” she insisted. “It was…”

They let the next few minutes pass in silence, shifting their attention to the café, where the young couple’s eyes widened at the sight of what appeared to be a pair of enormous ice creams, and they seemed to make shy comments about it, probably not knowing what else to talk about or too nervous to engage in a different conversation.

They smiled, feeling like they were the secret witnesses of new love blossoming in front of their very eyes.

“Chat Noir,” Ladybug finally called to him softly. She untangled herself from him so she could face him instead, but kept her face close to his. “Do you love me?”

 _“My Lady,”_ he whispered. “I’ve never stopped.”

“Then show me,” she breathed.

So he met her expecting lips and kissed her—like they had never kissed before.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also emsylcatac on Tumblr


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